Welcome

Welcome to the POZ Community Forums, a round-the-clock discussion area for people with HIV/AIDS, their friends/family/caregivers, and
others concerned about HIV/AIDS. Click on the links below to browse our various forums; scroll down for a glance at the most recent posts; or join in the
conversation yourself by registering on the left side of this page.

Privacy Warning: Please realize that these forums are open to all, and are fully searchable via Google and other search engines. If you are HIV positive
and disclose this in our forums, then it is almost the same thing as telling the whole world (or at least the World Wide Web). If this concerns you, then do not use a
username or avatar that are self-identifying in any way. We do not allow the deletion of anything you post in these forums, so think before you post.

The information shared in these forums, by moderators and members, is designed to complement, not replace, the relationship between an individual and his/her own
physician.

All members of these forums are, by default, not considered to be licensed medical providers. If otherwise, users must clearly define themselves as such.

Forums members must behave at all times with respect and honesty. Posting guidelines, including time-out and banning policies, have been established by the moderators
of these forums. Click here for “Do I Have HIV?” posting guidelines. Click here for posting guidelines pertaining to all other POZ community forums.

We ask all forums members to provide references for health/medical/scientific information they provide, when it is not a personal experience being discussed. Please
provide hyperlinks with full URLs or full citations of published works not available via the Internet. Additionally, all forums members must post information which are
true and correct to their knowledge.

Funny, I did some reading yesterday about the relationship between multiple sclerosis and HIV/HAART... I recalled reading some time ago that people with HIV don't get MS, and I wanted to know a bit more.

First, an unexplained statistical link between HIV and MS was observed: people living with HIV are 62 to 85% less likely to get MS. http://www.poz.com/articles/MS_HIV_761_26032.shtmlA that time people did not know whether the protective effect was caused by the virus itself or by the anti-retroviral therapies.Although there were a few stories before that, which suggested that HAART was the culprit. For example, patients having both HIV and MS saw their MS symptoms gradually reduced after they started taking HAART.

Thats really encouraging news.MS has to be one of the nastiest diseases on the planet.I just lost a friend known for 25 years, he was actually diagnosed a year after meeting him and at the time had no noticeable symtons .....I watched his long battle after that as it slowly took away everything till he was bed ridden and unable to swallow in the end. I thought no one deserves that suffering and was happpy he no longer had to suffer this past September. Modern science is amazing and so are the scientists and Doctors working on these medicines.This is really great news and only hope this can lead to some helpful treatment for those living with MS

I haven't had time to read the literature on your assertion but given that MS is an auto-immune disease and I struggle with umpteen auto-immune diseases on cART, I am suspect, and you should be too.

That is not to say I would dismiss this out of hand though. It is the anecdotal evidence reported by the BBC that should spur the usual thorough clinical trials-especially before screaming to the world that cART cures MS.